MicroRNA-17 impairs glucose metabolism in insulin-resistant skeletal muscle via repressing glucose transporter 4 expression

Elimination of glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4) inevitably induces insulin resistance (IR), aggravating inflammation- and oxidative stress-related disorders. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain incompletely understood. In this study, we identified miR-17 as an important regulator of IR by targeting GLUT4. MiR-17 expression was found significantly elevated in skeletal tissues of rats with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), along with marked downregulation of GLUT4 protein level. Luciferase reporter gene assay demonstrated a direct interaction between miR-17 and the 3'untranslated region of GLUT4 mRNA. Correlation analyses (Spearman, Pearson, and Kendall) revealed that miR-17 level was negatively correlated with GLUT4 expression. Additionally, loss- and gain-of-function analyses showed that overexpression of miR-17 impaired glucose metabolism in L6 rat skeletal muscle cell line. In contrast, knockdown of endogenous miR-17 ameliorated glucose metabolism, accompanied by elevation of GLUT4 protein level. These findings unraveled a novel mechanism for IR that involves repression of GLUT4 by miR-17 and suggested miR-17 as a potential molecular target for the development of new therapeutic approaches for the treatment of T2DM.